Pioneering Progress

Robert “Bob” Pascal has
made a life-long habit of
giving back to the people
and places that help him
thrive, ensuring others have a chance
to flourish as well. True to form, Mr.
Pascal recently made a gift of $1 million
to University of Maryland Medical
Center after receiving expert care from
orthopaedic surgeon Theodore “Ted”
Manson, MD. The gift is allowing
Dr. Manson to speed his pioneering
research on orthopaedic implants
from the bench to the bedsides of
patients across the country.

Mr. Pascal’s investment in UMMC
follows decades of broad support for
the communities that have sustained
him. From his childhood home in an
apartment above a bakery, he worked
hard to become a star student and
athlete –-ultimately earning a spot on
Duke University’s Blue Devils football
team, where he was named first
team All-American and Most Valuable
Player. After eventually buying United
Propane and building it into one of
the top 25 companies in the nation,
Mr. Pascal gave a lead gift to Duke for its new 80,000-square-foot Pascal
Field House, which helps next-generation
football players develop their skills.

He also became a public servant,
spending four years as a Maryland state
senator, seven years as county executive
of Anne Arundel County, and six as secretary
of appointments to Gov. William
Schaefer. Now retired from official public
service, Mr. Pascal continues to serve
his community through other means,
such as his wide-scale restoration of
the 950-acre Jean Ellen duPont Shehan
wildlife sanctuary, which he acquired
from the National Audubon Society in
July 2010. He’s vowed not to develop any
of this unspoiled land, and his restoration
efforts have included revitalizing a
waterfront house on the property that
serves as a retreat for wounded veterans.

“Bob Pascal is just a terrific guy,”
says Dr. Manson, who performed
Mr. Pascal’s knee replacement surgery
last year. “He’s the kind of person you
look forward to talking to when you
see him on the clinic schedule.”

These days, Mr. Pascal appears on
the schedule less and less after his
highly successful surgery. “When I
asked around about the best orthopaedic
surgeons, Ted Manson’s name was
mentioned often,” recalls Mr. Pascal.
“I was extremely impressed with the
way he handled my case. My knee
feels great; that’s the bottom line. It
got well, and it got well quickly.”

With his contribution to Dr.
Manson’s work, Mr. Pascal will be
helping others get well far into the
future. Partnering with colleagues
across the university—including
Robert O’Toole, MD, Mark Shirtliff,
PhD, Bruce Gilliam, MD, Kalpana
Shere-Wolf, MD, and Emily Heil,
PharmD —Dr. Manson is pioneering
studies on the prevention and treatment
of infection in orthopaedic implants.
Through innovative techniques
such as placing precisely the right
amount of antibiotics around implants at the time of surgery and administering
antibiotics directly into implants
that have already become infected,
Dr. Manson is changing the landscape
for the more than 800,000 Americans
receiving joint replacements each year.

“There can’t be a better place to invest
than UMMC,” Mr. Pascal says. “This
funding will go directly toward solving a
critical problem, and I think the results are
going to be really fantastic. Dr. Manson
will take this gift and run with it.”

“We’re using Mr. Pascal’s gift to
translate our smaller-scale basic science
project into a large-scale effort and
to launch a nationwide clinical trial,”
Dr. Manson explains. “With all of
today’s restrictions on government and
industry funding, it’s very difficult to
secure support for these types of projects.
It’s only through people like Mr.
Pascal that we’re able to do this.

“With this one gift, Bob is going to
end up helping quite a few people.”